Types

Former Miami University (Ohio) Students Accused of Hacking to Change Grades

Former Miami University (Ohio) Students Accused of Hacking to Change Grades

April 09, 2013

Two Miami University students who were dismissed from the institution for electronically changing their grades are now facing criminal charges for attempted unauthorized use of property. Beckley Parker and David Callahan used a keylogger on classroom computers in 2011 to record keystrokes made by instructors to obtain their usernames and passwords. Parker and Callahan then used the passwords to access grading systems and change their grades and other students' grades. The students also downloaded exams from professors' accounts. After a faculty member noticed discrepancies between the grades online and those in her records, Parker and Callahan admitted what they had done and accepted dismissal from the university last year. The school now works to prevent further occurrences of grade hacking in several ways, including: a two-step email notification process to faculty when changes are made, a weekly email report to faculty of all grade changes that have occurred during the previous week, thermal scanning of classroom keyboards and application of tamper-proof tape, sending faculty a final grade report at the end of term, and advising faculty on actions they can take to prevent grades from being illegally accessed.